Lepers Act, termed discriminatory, set to be repealed

A Bill to repeal 295 obsolete laws, including an 1898 Act which discriminates against lepers, was introduced in the Lok Sabha today as part of an exercise to clear statute books of redundant legislations.
The Repealing and Amending (Fourth) Bill, 2015 was introduced by Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, amid din over the Lalit Modi controversy.
The latest repeal bill was introduced just days before Gowda withdrew from Lok Sabha a similar bill to repeal some laws which were already repealed through a similar bill, to avoid the duplicacy.
The Bill, introduced by him in May this year, aimed to scrap 187 old laws. Since 30 of them have already been repealed through the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2014, the remaining 157 will now be deleted from the statute books through the Repealing and Amending (Fourth) Bill, 2015, introduced today.

The latest bill will seek to scrap a total of 295 obsolete Acts, including 157 which were part of the bill withdrawn last week.
Among the laws the latest bill seeks to repeal is the Lepers Act, 1898. The Law Commission, in its latest report, had termed as "discriminatory" against lepers.
It said the Lepers Act should be repealed as it enforced compulsory segregation of leprosy patients. It had recommended a fresh law to deal with the issue keeping in mind advances in medical sciences and changes in social thinking.
According to Law Ministry, with the passage of two similar repeal bills in Parliament, 125 irrelevant laws have been repealed so far.